An Open Letter in Response to the Many Chain Emails Seeking to Lower Gas Prices by Boycotting Oil Companies
You may have received an e-mail asking you not to purchase any gasoline on a certain date to protest high gas prices. The e-mail usually claims that if lots of people refuse to buy gas on a certain day, gas prices will fall, and this will put a dent in the profits of the dreaded oil companies.
The price of gas is a result of worldwide supply and demand forces. Gasoline, and the plentiful crude oil used to fabricate it, is in universal demand because it is so useful and essential to modern life. Since it is unlikely that you will entirely stop driving your car from this day forward, refusing to purchase gasoline on a certain date is merely delaying your purchase until a future date. It will have no practical effect on demand, which will be unleashed on the markets on some future date. It will certainly have no effect on prices long-term.
If you wish to enjoy lower gas prices, then protest the government policies that prevent oil production and exploration inside vast, unpopulated wastelands such as those in Alaska; protest the taxes that are levied on gasoline buyers; protest the massive subsidies given to the corn and ethanol industry, which only increase the cost of gasoline while reducing gas mileage; finally, call for an end to America’s timid refusal to eliminate, with unrelenting, unapologetic military force if necessary, the Middle Eastern regimes that confiscated the oil fields which were developed and owned by American oil companies in the first place.
You may be upset that gasoline prices are higher than you wish to pay. To the extent that they do not collude with the government, do not blame private oil companies. They are not at fault, either for their high prices, which are a result of market forces, or for their profits, which they deserve for producing such a valuable and useful product.
Tod
P.S. The author grants you permission to distribute this letter to anyone you wish, as long as the author is credited, and no changes, additions, or subtractions are made.
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